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"Zhuang, Yijie"
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Liangzhu culture : society, belief, and art in Neolithic China
\"Liangzhu culture (5,300-4,300 cal B.P.) represented the peak of prehistoric cultural and social development in the Yangtze Delta. Its centre is located near nowadays Hangzhou city and is considered one of the earliest urban centres in prehistoric China, called by archaeologists the Liangzhu Site Complex. Although it remains a mystery for many in the west, Liangzhu is well known in China for its fine jade crafting industry; its enormous, well-structured earthen compound and recently discovered hydraulic system; and its far-flung impact on contemporary and succeeding cultures. With six chapters contributed by frontline archaeologists, Liangzhu Culture contextualises Liangzhu in broad socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds and provides new, first-hand data to help explain the development and structure of this early urban centre. Among its many insights, the volume reveals how elites used jade as a means of acquiring social power, and how Liangzhu and its centre stand in comparison to other prehistoric urban centres in the world. This book, the first of its kind published in English language, will be a useful guide to students at all levels interested in material cultures and social structures in prehistoric China and beyond\"-- Provided by publisher.
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Earliest hydraulic enterprise in China, 5,100 years ago
Here we present one of the world’s oldest examples of large-scale and formalized water management, in the case of the Liangzhu culture of the Yangtze Delta, dated at 5,300–4,300 years cal B.P. The Liangzhu culture represented a peak of early cultural and social development predating the historically recorded Chinese dynasties; hence, this study reveals more about the ancient origins of hydraulic engineering as a core element of social, political, and economic developments. Archaeological surveys and excavations can now portray the impressive extent and structure of dams, levees, ditches, and other landscape-transforming features, supporting the ancient city of Liangzhu, with an estimated size of about 300 ha. The results indicate an enormous collective undertaking, with unprecedented evidence for understanding how the city, economy, and society of Liangzhu functioned and developed at such a large scale. Concurrent with the evidence of technological achievements and economic success, a unique relationship between ritual order and social power is seen in the renowned jade objects in Liangzhu elite burials, thus expanding our view beyond the practicalities of water management and rice farming.
Journal Article
Excavation at Hanjing site yields evidence of early rice cultivation in the Huai River more than 8000 years ago
Through the analysis of macro- and micro-plant remains, food residues and the rice-field like features from the mid-Neolithic site of Hanjing in the Huai River region, we propose an early beginning of rice cultivation at Hanjing. The presence of non-shattering rice spikelet bases and the increasing percentages of rice phytoliths confirm the appearance of domesticated rice in the Hanjing archaeobotanical assemblage. However, as indicated by the different prediction rates of rice domestication shown by morphometric of the double-peaked
Oryza
-type glum cells and fish-scale decorations on the
Oryza
-type bulliform cells from different cultural phases before 7,000 a BP, rice cultivation was at an early stage of development. Our findings provide new and significant evidence towards the establishment of the Huai River as another important center for early rice cultivation and domestication in prehistoric China.
Journal Article
Millets, dogs, pigs and permanent settlement: productivity transitions in Neolithic northern China
The transition to sedentary agricultural societies in northern China fuelled considerable demographic growth from 5000 to 2000 BC. In this article, we draw together archaeobotanical, zooarchaeological and bioarchaeological data and explore the relationship between several aspects of this transition, with an emphasis on the millet-farming productivity during the Yangshao period and how it facilitated changes in animal husbandry and consolidation of sedentism. We place the period of domestication (the evolution of non-shattering, initial grain size increase and panicle development) between 8300 and 4300 BC. The domestication and post-domestication of foxtail ( Setaria italica ) and broomcorn ( Panicum miliaceum ) millet increased their productivity substantially, with much greater rate of change than for rice ( Oryza sativa ). However, millets are significantly less productive per hectare than wet rice farming, a point reflected in the greater geographical expanse of northern Neolithic millet cultures (5000–3000 BC) in comparison with their Yangtze rice-growing counterparts. The domestication of pigs in the Yellow River region is evidenced by changes in their morphology after 6000 BC, and a transition to a millet-based diet c. 4500–3500 BC. Genetic data and isotopic data from dogs indicate a similar dietary transition from 6000 to 4000 BC, leading to new starch-consuming dog breeds. Significant population increase associated with agricultural transitions arose predominately from the improvement of these crops and animals following domestication, leading to the formation of the first proto-urban centres and the demic-diffusion of millet agriculture beyond central northern China between 4300–2000 BC.
Journal Article
Numerical Simulation of Atmospheric Pollutant Dispersion on Campus: Impacts of Wind Environment and Newly Constructed Buildings' Height
Toluene, as a common organic solvent in academic laboratories in university campuses, poses potential exposure concerns to students and staff in university campuses. Hence, by using a computational fluid dynamics simulation, we investigated the dispersion characteristics of toluene at a campus in Guangzhou under meteorological conditions and the impact of newly constructed buildings on toluene concentrations. The numerical simulation results reveal that toluene is readily accumulated in the free movement area under the prevailing east wind, in the administrative area under the prevailing north-northeast wind, and in the teaching area under the prevailing south wind. Therein, the teaching buildings (TB3-TB6) possess the highest average concentration of toluene compared with other functional areas. In the presence of newly constructed buildings, the toluene concentrations are decreased under the south-southeast wind but are aggravated under the southeast wind. As the height increases, under south-southeast winds, the merging of vortex structures continuously reduces toluene concentrations at TB3 and TB4 and the expansion of the wake region rebounds the toluene pollution at TB5 and TB6; under southeast winds, the expanding vertical vortex structures aggravate toluene pollution at TB3 and TB5 but attenuate toluene pollution at TB4 and TB6. Our results reveal that the teaching areas of the target campus represent a critical zone for potential student exposure during summer and require particular attention. This study provides new insights into the coupled effects of prevailing wind conditions and campus morphology on VOC dispersion characteristics and improves the understanding of airflow pollutant interactions in complex campus environments.
Journal Article
Dietary Canthaxanthin Supplementation Promotes the Laying Rate and Follicular Development of Huaixiang Hens
Canthaxanthin(CX) is a ketocarotenoid, which is widely used in poultry production as a lipophilic antioxidant. Huaixiang chickens are a local breed in China famous for their excellent meat quality; improving their laying rate via nutritional regulation has attracted extensive attention. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of dietary CX on the laying rate and follicular development in Huaixiang hens. A total of 180 Huaixiang hens were randomly divided into five groups with six replicates, and six chickens per replication. The control group (CON) were fed a basal diet, and the treatment group (NT) were fed a basal diet supplemented with 4, 6, 8 and 10 mg/kg CX. All chickens were 26 weeks old, living at an average environmental temperature of 25 ± 2 °C with a relative humidity of 65–75%. The results showed that supplementing the CX improved the laying rate and large white follicles (LWF) number (p < 0.05) and increased the concentration of reproductive hormones (LH, FSH, E2 and Prog) (p < 0.05), and the basal diet supplemented with 6 mg/kg CX worked best. Moreover, CX could increase the activities of antioxidant enzymes SOD and GSH-Px (p < 0.05) and reduce the content of the lipid peroxidation product MDA in Huaixiang chickens (p < 0.05); again, 6 mg/kg CX was best. In conclusion, dietary CX had positive effects on the laying rate, ovarian structure, reproductive hormone secretion, follicle development, and the antioxidant capacity of Huaixiang hens, and 6 mg/kg CX was recommended to be added to the diet of Huaixiang chickens.
Journal Article
Earliest ceramic drainage system and the formation of hydro-sociality in monsoonal East Asia
The earliest ceramic drainage system unearthed at the Pingliangtai site on the Central Plains of China represents an unprecedented social and environmental manipulation as societies faced surging environmental crises in the Late Holocene East Asian Monsoon region. Here we present results of excavation and a geoarchaeological survey of the water-management infrastructures and environment which reveal the operation and maintenance of a well-planned and regulated two-tiered drainage system. Rather than a ‘centralized hierarchy’, the drainage activities were mainly practised at household and communal levels, through which Pingliangtai society was drawn to more pragmatic aspects of social governance. Through their emphasis on spatial uniformity, cooperation in public affairs, and a series of technological innovations, water management at Pingliangtai gravitated to collective shared interest as the society responded to recurrent environmental contingencies. Such a pragmatic focus on public affairs constituted a previously unrecognized, alternative pathway to the development of power structure and social governance on the Central Plains regimes in late Neolithic and later times.
Journal Article
Late prehistoric and early historic chronology of Myanmar: a four-millennia sequence from Halin
Myanmar is located within an important geographic corridor of prehistoric demographic and technological exchange, yet relatively few archaeological sites have been securely dated. Here, the authors present a new radiocarbon chronology for Halin, a UNESCO-listed complex in the north-central Sagaing Division of Myanmar, which contributes to the generation of nuanced regional chronologies and to improving the temporal resolution of Southeast Asia more generally. Discussion of 94 radiocarbon determinates, together with site stratigraphy and pottery traditions, provides a chronological sequence from the early third millennium BC to the early second millennium AD. Corroboration of the beginning of this sequence would place Halin as the oldest currently dated Neolithic site in Mainland Southeast Asia and would provide support for the two-layer model of Neolithic migration.
Journal Article
The Spread and Regional Development of Wheat Farming in the Yellow River Valley under the Han Empire
We synthesize recent archaeological discoveries on the spread of Han wheat farming, including archaeobotanical evidence, artefacts related to wheat farming and wheat flour processing, and discovered texts such as wooden slips. We cross-examine the archaeological data with transmitted historical records within the wider social and cultural contexts of the Yellow River valley and adjacent regions. We conclude that the spread of wheat farming in the Middle Yellow River region was slower than that of the Lower Yellow River region due to environmental and social reasons. After Emperor Wu’s era, wheat farming began to take off in both regions, which was characterized by its expanding geographic distributions, its increasing importance in the imperial agricultural economies and its growing recognition by the society. The beneficial factors, including favorable climate-environmental conditions, accumulating agronomic knowledge, technological innovations and other factors, and changing dietary traditions played diverse roles in the regional development of wheat farming in these regions.
Journal Article
Archaeology of the Anthropocene in the Yellow River region, China, 8000–2000 cal. BP
Although archaeological analysis emphasizes the importance of climatic events as a driver of historical processes, we use a variety of environmental and archaeological data to show that human modification of the environment was a significant factor in shaping the early history of the Yellow River region of North China. Humans began to modify site-specific and local-level environments in the Early Holocene (~11,500–7000 BP). By the Mid-Holocene (~7000–5000 BP), the effects of humans on the environment become much larger and are witnessed at regional and tributary river basin scales. Land clearance and agriculture, as well as related land use, are dominant determinants of these changes. By the Late Neolithic to Early Bronze Age (~5000–3500 BP), population growth and intensification of agricultural production expanded the human footprint across the Yellow River region. By the Mid to Late Bronze Age (~3600–2200 BP), larger populations armed with better technology and propelled by more centralized governments were altering lands throughout the Yellow River region, gradually bringing the environment under human control. By the Early Dynastic period (221 bc–ad 220), the Yellow River region was an increasingly anthropogenic environment wherein human land management practices were, in many instances, as consequential as natural forces. Throughout the Holocene history of the Middle and Lower Yellow River, anthropogenic, climatic, and natural environmental processes were acting to shape human history and behavior, making it difficult, if not impossible, to say whether human or climate processes were more consequential. There is a complex relationship in China’s early history between natural and human forcing much like there is today. The Early Anthropocene concept is useful here because it recognizes that when natural and cultural forces become so intertwined, it no longer makes sense to separate the two.
Journal Article